Italy's In Tormentata Quiete clearly do not want to be bound by usual metal music codes; just one look at cover artworks and band pictures made me think of that possibility, but when I heard the band's music, it was clear. The label's depiction: "genre: gothic black, style: neofolk." Well, personally I think gothic black is pussy and neofolk is something I do not know a pinch about. Let's start dissecting the band's self-titled debut album.

On their heaviest, ITQ sound like groovier Cradle Of Filth, but only slightly. Shrieking male vocals are in vein of Dani Filth and synth work is quite epic and synthesized string arrangements are utilized. Generally, the blackish metal side is average and has been heard before, so it is good the band didn't stick to that style alone. ITQ were able to conjure some working horror compositions with real Italian feel. Acoustic guitars are the neofolk thing. They make the band sound more unique. Acoustics don't sound anything like "medieval" or pub kind of folky, but modern. When, rarely, there's a folky tune playing, it reminds me of old Moonspell. ITQ threw in some proggy and jazzy bits and so their stew is made of quite many ingredients. Drumming is something else than plain metal beats, and definitely one of the highlights here.

3 vocalists (a lady, clean male one and growling & shrieking male) is a lot, and it's quite usual that all three (or even more voices) are on together. ITQ are theatrical and the music follows stories I think, at least it feels dramatic enough. Italian language makes it very hard for me. However, Italian sounds a lot better here than sung by Eros "same song, different name" Ramazotti with his fairy voice! I just don't know what the lyrics are about. This makes the album hard to get into. After some spins, the songs began to differ from each other, but the main problem with this album is to samey material. Feels like the band ran out of ideas. There's two calmer pieces, which work well on this quite a chaotic album. This album was recorded already in 2003, but released until May 2005. The sound is organic, except those synths, especially strings sounds, but there's so much stuff going on at times that it can get, hmmmm, stuffed.

'In Tormentata Quiete' presented me something a bit different, but I don't know how it does that in gothic metal circles. In my ears this is way better than majority of goth metal, which is just weepy lame gayness. Give it a try if "genre: gothic black, style: neofolk" feels like it could offer you something to get into.

Rating: 5½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
06/01/2005 14:59